Holiday Marketing Hacks

For most companies, sending one holiday email campaign is an astronomical feat. It can be challenging to organize internal marketing efforts around the holidays, when business flow tends to be at its highest all year. Whether sales are going up or clients are trying to maximize the services available to them for the year, the last thing on minds of enterprise level marketing departments is to up their email marketing campaigns.

Just like this is a high point to maximize business for customers and clients, it’s equally a high season for you to increase your visibility. An amplified email marketing initiative can do that.

There’s really no better time in the year than during the holidays, considering the holidays afford an added opportunity to for content variation. Whether you’re creating informative pieces, end of year summaries and highlights, or offering a resource or charity gathering, there’s ample opportunity to hack into holiday marketing, including the tips below.

Segmented Email Marketing

This is a standard email marketing rule that most growing marketing departments don’t take advantage of primarily because it requires a little extra work to develop segment-friendly marketing content. But it doesn’t have to be complicated. When creating segmented holiday marketing campaigns, you don’t need to go back to the drawing board for each campaign. You can use the same template (saving on time and designer cost). The only thing you would really need to alter is the content. Consider your audience: what type of content would appeal to each? How can you alter your messaging or the products you’re sharing to cater to each?

Consider Key Dates

The holidays aren’t just about Christmas and New Year’s. Consider the other types of special dates that fall into this month. Giving Tuesday, the first Tuesday of the month, is a pretty big deal. Even if you’re not a charitable organization, you can take advantage of the spirit of giving on that day and during the season to draw attention to a charity you’re passionate about. In fact, charitable giving is a culture and brand defining trait, with several larger companies hiring consultants to guide them in their giving practice. In addition to Giving Tuesday, be mindful of other religious and cultural celebrations this month and going into the New Year.

Local Opportunities

If you’re a location-based business or organization, take advantage of your local community during the season. The holidays are a major time for communities coming together. For business, this means cultivating rapport, increasing your local brand recognition, and meet people face to face. So get involved. See what’s going on in your community locally and reach out to see what part your business can play. Doing this means starting well ahead of the holiday season so you can market this in your email campaigns, segmented to a local audience.

Annual Survey

As the New Year approaches, there’s a lot of reflecting that will be going on internally with your company and with your clients as well. This is a great time to reach out to your audience and ask them to reflect on how you performed this year. Using Survey Monkey, keep the surveys short and sweet, along an opportunity in a field to fill out some additional thoughts or notes should anyone wish to share more.

If you’re still stuck on what additional campaigns to create this season, consider what your company has done in the past during this time of year that you wish you’d highlighted more.